Windows 10 machine won't browse network shares

[Computer Bloke]

It's my own machine, not a client's.

You really should have said that earlier. It's important.

I wouldn't waste this much time on someone else's machine, lol.

But you don't mind if we do? OK...

Just install Linux on it and move on. It's for the best.

 

[DocGreen]

You really should have said that earlier. It's important.

I did... in my very first post:

Running into a weird issue on a W10 Pro machine. I've got it connected to my home network and registered through my Server2k12r2 domain server...

I also referenced all of my other machines on the network that don't have this problem.

But you don't mind if we do? OK...

Just install Linux on it and move on. It's for the best.

Did I ask you to remote-in and fix the problem for me? Or did I ask for advice from more experienced techs? I realize I haven't been very active recently, but last I knew the whole purpose of this forum was to help each other by sharing our collective knowledge and experience. @Bryce W am I wrong?

And why would I install Linux to "fix" the problem? The point of going through the hassle of actually fixing the problem is for the knowledge, so that if I ever run across the problem again in the field, I'll know what to do, as will anyone who follows the thread. A customer wouldn't accept installing Linux as a solution, especially one running Windows 10 Pro on a Windows domain network.

 

[ell]

Try disabling windows defender, really. Especially "controlled folder access"

 

[Computer Bloke]

I did... in my very first post:

No, you said you had it connected to your home network which is a reasonable thing to do for testing a client's machine.

I suspect that most of us who contributed to this thread did so in a spirit of helping out a fellow technician who was in a spot of trouble with a client's computer - that's absolutely fine and we do it every day. But asking us (collectively - not me personally) for help with your own computer without making it very clear that it is your own computer is a lot more like asking us to give free assistance to an end user.

This probably comes across as a bit tetchy (and maybe it is), but you said yourself that you're only spending this much time and effort on it because it's your own machine and that you wouldn't do this for a client. Well, guess what? Neither would I. By now that machine would have been nuked and paved or on its way to landfill.

 

[DocGreen]

Try disabling windows defender, really. Especially "controlled folder access"

So Windows Defender (Antivirus) is already disabled, as I'm using Avast... Just for fun I tried disabling Avast... no change. Thought you might have meant Windows Defender Firewall, so I tried disabling that as well... no change.

What's interesting is, when I restart after making a change to settings and get the "path cannot be found" error I click cancel rather than diagnose... if I keep trying to browse the network shares right away, I keep getting the popup. But if I wait a minute or two before trying again, it works like it's supposed to. Could it be a network service set to "delayed" or "triggered" start causing the problem? My first thought was "DNS Client", but Windows won't let me stop/start/restart or change any of the settings on that one for whatever reason.

No, you said you had it connected to your home network which is a reasonable thing to do for testing a client's machine.

I suspect that most of us who contributed to this thread did so in a spirit of helping out a fellow technician who was in a spot of trouble with a client's computer - that's absolutely fine and we do it every day. But asking us (collectively - not me personally) for help with your own computer without making it very clear that it is your own computer is a lot more like asking us to give free assistance to an end user.

This probably comes across as a bit tetchy (and maybe it is), but you said yourself that you're only spending this much time and effort on it because it's your own machine and that you wouldn't do this for a client. Well, guess what? Neither would I. By now that machine would have been nuked and paved or on its way to landfill.

If you feel like I've mislead you, I apologize. But please don't think that I'm coming at this from an end-user standpoint, because that is not the case at all. If I just wanted the problem to go away I could have handled that on my own. But because this is something I've never come across before, and it's a problem that I may run into in the future with one of my business clients, I feel that it's important to at least try to identify the problem and actually correct it rather than give up and nuke & pave. For most of my clients, that's a last resort that requires a full day of reinstalling LOB software and restoring critical data, all while impacting their production. So if I can work through the problem on my own, non-critical machine, and actually find the proper solution, it could save my clients a lot of lost time. Yes, a nuke & pave would be the quickest and easiest way to fix this machine... but I'm not concerned with fixing this machine. I'm concerned with identifying the problem for future reference... for myself, and everyone else here.

 

[DocGreen]

Also, I wasn't really expecting anyone to troll through the annals of the interwebs to find the answer for me... I've already tried that and came up with a whole lot of unrelated nothing. That's why I came here and posted about it. The only thing I was expecting was a group of knowledgeable individuals to spitball ideas off of... the only time I expected anyone to invest is the time it takes to read and respond (and maybe look through some notes, if something were to sound familiar).

 

[ell]

I find windows 10 pro is different, get rid of avast, don't just disable it. Then run tweaking.com through it in safe mode with all repairs selected. Avast totally messed my win 10 pro machine on 2 separate occasions. Remove all security apps

 

[DocGreen]

I find windows 10 pro is different, get rid of avast, don't just disable it. Then run tweaking.com through it in safe mode with all repairs selected. Avast totally messed my win 10 pro machine on 2 separate occasions. Remove all security apps

Thanks for the tip. I'll report back and let you know how it goes!

 

[Computer Bloke]

On re-reading the thread it looks as if you haven't conclusively determined whether the problem is in DNS or not. You can divide the problem space in half by following @Barcelona's suggestion of putting an entry for the server into your workstation's HOSTS file. If that makes it work then you're looking at a DNS problem; if not, not.

Could you please take five minutes to try this and let us know what heppens?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

He is running a domain on the network, so the DNS server has to be the IP of his server. Other workstations using that IP for their DNS are working, and after he runs network repair on this rig it starts resolving.
Browsing via IP works, browsing via host name does not work, running network repair..browsing via host name starts to work.
Something isolated to this workstation, and either its method of resolving DNS, local browsing cache, master browser not giving up to the DC...hmmm...Doc...can you find that registry edit to tell this computer that it's NOT the Master Browser on the network? It should flip to the false setting for the "Is" setting once you join a domain..but perhaps it's being cranky and not giving that up. In a workgroup environment the latest OS version often assumes to take over that role.

Oh...go into TCP/IP v4 settings, advanced..under the WINS tab, flip on "enable netbios over IP". Reboot.

 

[DocGreen]

On re-reading the thread it looks as if you haven't conclusively determined whether the problem is in DNS or not. You can divide the problem space in half by following @Barcelona's suggestion of putting an entry for the server into your workstation's HOSTS file. If that makes it work then you're looking at a DNS problem; if not, not.

Could you please take five minutes to try this and let us know what heppens?

Haven't had any time to play around, but I did try this. No effect. :\

ell & Stonecat's suggestions are up next.


Side note: I'm pretty certain this is all related to the stored credentials error I'd gotten using RDP (see OP). If I attempt to browse a network share on a host that I've not saved credentials for, it works fine... but if I then save the credentials for that machine and try again I get the "path not found" error (again, until after I've "diagnosed"). Because this machine is registered to the domain, I don't have the option of deleting the credentials for shares on the server, so I can't test that out. So... what would be preventing this machine from "fully identifying" other machines on the network?